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Thursday, 30 September 2010

I'd always wanted to do a time lapse video of me drawing and coloring something in and so with this horror skull demon art that I drew whilst I had the Flip camera rolling I thought I would implement the time lapse on this video to see how it looks and it looks great.

I might try and add sound next time or maybe some cool effects or something, I don't know yet, just watch the video to see me draw a horror demon skull in 1 minute and 12 seconds.....

Monday, 27 September 2010

Gargoyles are great to draw I've found out quite recently, as I have just started drawing them last year and a bit this year and on my Fantasy art video channel on YouTube I have created 3 videos so far experimenting with drawing a Gargoyle. Each Gargoyle has it's own look and design and the designs have something in common with an almost stone like texture to the drawings.

I have an upcoming Gargoyle drawing tutorial and in that you will find a fusion of these Gargoyle drawings.

Look at the drawing videos and be inspired to draw your own Gargoyle.

I've always remembered Gargoyles from that movie Gremlins 2 where the winged Gremlin gets covered in concrete and then flies on top of a building and dries rock solid, classic.

Saturday, 25 September 2010

Making money from creating fantasy art is easier said than done. It takes a creative individual to create some good fantasy art, whether that is a painting or a drawing or a special fantasy comic book or graphic novel. Fantasy art is a highly popular artistic medium that has been around for a long while, over a couple of hundred years I suppose and there have been many artists over those years creating some stunning pieces of work to inspire.

Typically creating some worlds and scenes in a drawing or painting takes some good solid draft work, but it is achievable with having a self belief in your own art and believing it can sell, if you can match the quality of other fantasy artists you admire, then sure selling your own art would be fantastic. Making money with your fantasy art can be done in other ways, with selling wallpapers or screen savers online, these are the screens that can appear when you leave your computer ideal for a certain amount of time. Wallpapers are photos or illustrations that display on a persons computer desk top and this is the first image they would see when they switch on their computer.

Clip art would be the next one, as clip art has advanced over the years from the early pixellated versions of Microsoft Paint clip art as many are created now with Photoshop or some advanced art software like Gimp, they really make things much simpler in the design and certainly more smoother, although they do take time to learn, but they are very worth it.

If you have some reasonable talent in the style that you draw and create your own art, then you could consider selling courses and tutorials which others would benefit from, maybe students or artists who are just interested in the art style that you draw and even the stuff that you draw. You could start off with basic drawing tutorials that get advanced at a later stage or you could show people how to draw specific things, like tattoo art, comic book art, portraits etc. There are endless possibilities!

Whenever you may hear online about making money, you might find that most stuff online is just for these site owners to make money and they present money making products that sound good and that they may work to some degree, but not overnight or within a week like the products sales copy suggests. So with this in mind, you need to be making your own corner of the business world, creating your own line of products that you will use as evidence that you are serious about this as a viable business.

But among the obvious ways to make money with your art, there are others that require a certan amount of pushyness that will help to get your foot in a few industries, like games development and other Illustration based concept environments. An art portfolio is needed to show your best fantasy artwork and present it in a way that will show your capabilities as a fantasy artist/illustrator, bear in mind that the creative industries are very competitive, so you have to think of ideas to stick out of the crowd and either get employment in creating art or making money with your art directly.

Next time when you begin drawing, have a little think about the possibilities of marketing your artwork, who would buy it? think, what would your art best suit?, what genres? and what styles?

Always think ahead of your artistic creations and try and categorize them into manageable earning entities that create many strands of income on their own.

Thursday, 23 September 2010

This is a question that you might ask if youve never drawn before or created pieces of artwork yourself. to the amateur artist, you might wonder can you learn to be an artist, but somethings go beyond basic talent and sometimes a need for learning to draw or a need to express your creative side may not require talent, just commitment to figure out the many problems to solve by actually getting on with drawing a load of stuff, whether that's life drawing or imaginative art.

A sense of knowing about a particular topic is what is required, but I always think that the deeper you get into learning how to draw, the better your artistic skills will become regardless of any specific talent in art.

I suppose my interest in art started from learning how to draw stuff, anything and then I just got interested in the imaginative side of art like fantasy art and it all snowballed from there. Art is what you make it and being interested in a certain subject area really helps you focus all of your creative energies. The idea that drawing is something you can learn is very true, but you do have to stick with it and be experimental in your approach to making marks on paper. Draw with pencils, but also learn to draw and make marks with paint brushes, art markers and other art mediums like paints and spray paint. Art makes you feel free in a way, because you can set a piece of work to order in a specific way and be organized with it or you can just let your imagination run free.

Learning to be an artist is certainly a good idea, whether that's being a self taught artist like me or a trained artist who went to college and university for a good few years, it doesn't matter, so long as the interest in art can sustain your enjoyment and a certain degree of career satisfaction then why not.

Beginning your learning journey with art should always begin with the basics, the very foundations of art, such as figure drawing, life drawing, objects of interest and then your art can become a transcended amalgamated form that becomes your passion, the reason why you like drawing and want to continue to draw.

The reasons why I draw is because it's relaxing letting your mind wander, seeing the sights of your imagination and not letting others thoughts and images influence a bad creative mental block. Others art should influence you in a positive way and should be all that you can see and touch and feel. The art that's all around us can truly be one of the most magnificent things to look at on a daily basis, it can shape and mould our creative minds and help us in times of creative need, the mind needs feeding a lot and different artists work can bring about a change in thought processes to unchain negative doubts and reaffirm your artistic confidence.

So, in answer to the question, if I haven't veered off topic slightly, is that you can learn to be an artist, but there is more to be learnt from actually being an artist if that makes sense, the more you draw, the more adept you get at problem solving, whether that's drawing realistic figures or drawing your art in a way that has a feel of realism, but keeps to your own art style well and therefore doesn't detract or deviate from one subject matter to another.

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

Currently I have set up a work studio for my art downstairs and it is for a very good reason, we are due to move house soon and everything and the kitchen sink has to be stored in my old computer room where I did have my professional drawing board all set up to draw some stuff.

My laptop is next to my lightbox for drawing and my other artists pens and bits and pieces are scattered untidily for a change and it's been like this for over a year now as we aren't sure when we are going to move (And still aren't)

The idea is to move house and get a better art studio space sorted, because this kind of space is open to all distractions, such as the kids and the TV or the computer games as my son seems to play the sound real loud as he claims he can't hear it....

So if you ever see that I haven't updated my blog in a few days, then it is a good bet that this current arrangement has distracted me somehow....

Look at the video below, to see my dire art space studio temporary as it is now!......

Monday, 13 September 2010

Fairy drawing is something that I'm not used to and through this second post I feel I'm slowly getting there to draw a fairy, because you may remember my half arsed approach last time here - Drawing Fairies and now you can compare that one to this effort and there is slight improvements.

Although I did feel that the arms appeared too large and the feet, but it's an inspirational look at drawing a fairy and maybe the next time it will be much better, so without further self criticism, here is how to draw a fairy....

The first steps of any drawing has to be about a figure sketch that doesn't say a lot, as it needs to describe the shape of the fairies figure, but not reveal everything straight away, a simple way of doing this is to break down the figure into simple shapes, much like I've done before in my other drawing tutorials.

You can see below, that the fairy could be almost anything, but at least you know it will eventually become a fairy.

Fairy Sketch Step 1....

The next stage of our fairy drawing I suppose would be to bring out the figure more and refine it into something more tangible as a fairy figure form, also we can add some of the rough details like sketching in the dress and a few lines for the hair and basic features which will change in the next drawing stage.

Sometimes it might be worth trying to trace using a lightbox to see if you can capture the general figure and practice a few other figure positions at this drawing stage before it becomes final.

Drawing a fairy Step 2.....

One of the interesting aspects of this fairy drawing is that it's largely better than other fairies I've drawn, so it really does help to keep on practicing at every chance that you get because you do get better, maybe it's not noticeable until you compare your drawings, but art does improve over time, I assure you!

The third sketch is the best as we can throw out most of the rough pencil lines now and dispense with them as we have a good idea where we are going now or at least you should. Notice the curls on the fairies hair and more detail and refined design elements come into play now, this is when you know that your fairy drawing is going to be better than you thought.

Fairy drawing Step 3....

The final stage of the fairy drawing for me was about adding those finishing touches, such as eyes and more subtle details on the fairies dress with the flowers, although still not entirely happy with the fairies legs and arms, it still is an idea, a germ of inspiration for your own fairy drawings.

I inked the last fairy sketch with a fine line gel ink pen, which is always nice to ink with as the ink flows better and doesn't clog up when you are adding ink to your drawings, Biros are a good example of a pen that clogs, although I sketch often with a black biro I never use them for inking anymore.

When drawing your own fairies, try and get inspiration from fashion magazines, as this is what I will do for the next fairy drawing tutorial, as each tutorial passes I want to surpass the last one. And the possibilities of drawing a fairy that looks like a fashion model is very exciting to try and work out, it's a challenge, so watch this space....

Sunday, 12 September 2010

Search Amazon.com for CrayolaBeen busy creating some YouTube videos lately (Can't you tell?!!) and in this one I have colored a Halloween pumpkin with those trusty and most classic Crayola crayons which I've used ever since I was a little devil back at nursery drawing on the nursery walls (Naughty me!!)

The Crayola crayons are wax crayons and so they do need you to get past the fact that wax sometimes leaves crumbs of wax crayon on the drawing and this can be frustrating for some, but it is a workable medium as you can easily shake the bits off yor drawing or even get a small scalpel and scrape them off.

Saturday, 11 September 2010

When it comes to coloring in with any art marker, it is a really good idea to do a quick almost sketchy color guide first and this YouTube video that I created simply shows you how to apply color in a few shades in a fast sketchy way without me saying a word.

The drawing was a skull with fire at the back of the skull design and so all I had to do was quickly color in with my Crayola Supertip markers with 4 markers red, orange, yellow and pink.

Watch the video and see how easy it is to lay down color with some supertip art markers from Crayola.....

I recently did a quick video flicking through a great Manga drawing book that I bought awhile ago and it is full of great drawing tutorials which you can see the tutorial examples as I run through the Manga art book.

The monster book of manga is a really good book that I think you really should take a look at if you are into learning how to draw Manga and there are loads of Manga characters and creatures to draw within the book.

What I say in the video is that the drawing tutorials are really focused and created in such a format that it makes it easy to follow every step of the way drawing these popular Manga characters and creatures. So there is no pages of art with no direction or fluff, just to get you to buy the book with over 366 pages, this book really is a monster book of manga!

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

How to draw a werewolf, This is a drawing tutorial that shows you how to draw a wolfman. Werewolves are classic creatures to draw as they always look good when you try and draw them like the classic 1950's wolfman and to draw them with a canine element that's mixed with a human one is better for the werewolf to shine.

The beginning sketches are really basic, but they are needed to find your way with the werewolf drawing itself. Here below is the first drawing and it is the usual way of laying out simple figures that I have become used to, so study how the muscles and the form of each figure that you draw relates to each other and work it all out on the paper.

The second sketch is trying to examine where you go from the first sketch, it is about building up the wolfman's body structure and refining everything along the way. Muscles are worked out more here in this step and we lose much of the circular muscle shapes I used to start off the basic figure drawing.

The third step in the werewolf drawing process is to see the figure develop further and also starting to create more hair for the werewolf to look authentic, especially the head we can see the wolfman looking more realistic as a fantasy wolfman. Also note that in the background I've started to add a few mountains and a few clouds, in the inking stage I will draw a full moon to set off the wolfman drawing more.

The werewolf is looking more and more wolfman like now with it's ripped clothes, so try and aim for something along these lines.....

The last step of drawing a werewolf, I have decided to ink the complete pencil drawing with more added detail and the drawing looks more realised now with the fine line art work added in an almost comic book style.

Drawing a werewolf is a classic movie monster and look for more drawing tutorials from me soon featuring other classic movie creatures to draw.

Saturday, 4 September 2010

Draw a minotaurs head in this easy to follow video that makes it easier for you to sketch your own Minotaur as a scary looking fantasy Minotaur. Watch this drawing video on drawing a detailed Minotaur head.

Friday, 3 September 2010

Drawing a pirate is fun and my son said to me"Dad can you draw me a pirate? and so I said "ok!" and here we are, a Pirate drawing tutorial with inspirational steps to follow to learn how to draw a pirate. Let's draw a pirate!

Pirates have the best costumes, at least that's what I used to think as a kid, dressing up in a pirate hat and big red over coat, but Pirates can look quite like horrible criminals with scars on their faces and dirty clothes.

At first in my sketches I was going to draw Captain Hook, but decided to do a different pirate instead. Pirates are best drawn with a cutlass I think, so that's what I concentrated on.

In the first sketch below I focused on the figure, the basic layout that makes up any drawing and to get this right is the best thing to do....

Notice that the muscles have been drawn quite large and more dfined, because I wanted this pirate to be a brute and something of a hard pirate who liked to fight, give your pirates character by defining their figure shape early on.

The second pirate sketch dealt with refining that figure form a lot better and really loosing a lot of the circular shapes I'd used to build up the basic figure drawing of our pirate. You can see some of the prate qualities coming through in the following design sketch with the bandana becoming quite noticeable.

This step is as important as the last as you are moving away from a pre-sketch sketch to a more built up version which gets better every time or at least it should, try practicing if you make a mistake, you learn from your mistakes.

The third sketch really starts to bring the pirate drawing together now, as more of the muscles are defined and some of the pirates clothing is worked out much better. Also we can see the face with the nasty pirates features with a grim and gritty look like he's going to kill someone to get some treasure.

The fourth and final drawing sees the pencil lines becoming more darker now and some of the details are ironed out a bit more, take a look below.....

And there we have it, a pirate, try drawing this pirate yourself or make up your own inspired by it. Drawing pirates is fun!

Drawing with a lightbox is great for drawing certain designs that you either want drawing right or you want to trace elements of one drawing to another and it's also a good artists tool for drawing animations also.

But I'm not an animator I'm more of an artist and that's what I use the artists lightbox for and here is how I draw with a lightbox....

I get one drawing that I've done and I decide whether that drawing is good, but then maybe I want to do a variation on it so that I could say take the head of something and then draw a completly different portion of the drawing by tracing the head part that I want to keep, but then I start to sketch below where I want a different drawing to occur.

In the following video I show you my light box and in it I'm drawing a halloween pumpkin and tracing over the top and this is only a first look at what you can use a lightbox for in your drawing.